In 1880 New York City, Patrick has it rough. No family, no money-he has to steal food to survive, and he lives under the porch of a hotel. Patrick has no job, because he's too small and puny a man to work at physical labor, and he doesn't have enough schooling to be a clerk.
Then he sees a newspaper ad saying that the Mail Order Bride Company is looking for young women who are willing to take a train out west and to marry a lonely man, sight unseen.
To Patrick, the idea seems simple: Dress up as a young woman, scam the Mail Order Bride Company out of a train ticket, travel for free to somewhere west of New York, ditch the women's clothes, and start a new life in a new city.
Patrick's plan works at first. But then he discovers that every time the train pulls into a station, the Mail Order Bride Company has someone there to make sure that "Charity" doesn't leave "her" train.
But what really messes up the plan is a kindly old woman on the train. She reads to "Charity" from what "Charity" believes is merely a book of poetry.
Tags: 1880s, Chicago (IL), cross-dressing, fantasy, Fort Wayne (IN), historical fantasy, magic, magical transformation, New York City (NY), orphan, orphanage, romance, slow transformation, tg, train travel, transgender, transvestite, Webster (SD)
The story is 47,100 words.
